How I Save Money… [In Pictures]

[This post is part of the TaxACT How I Save blog tour which teaches you ways to keep more money in your pocket. Last year, TaxACT saved America over $240 million on tax preparation. How much can you save? To learn more about tips and strategies on saving, click here.]

BOO! We break our regularly scheduled postings this week to talk more about $$$ saving and offer y’all up a chance to win some free tax software today!

I know we’ve obsessedaboutsaving money going on a straight week now (what can I say, when you’re into something you’re into something!), so if you’re all saved out just go read these jokes instead and come back tomorrow… Where we’ll be talking about beer, bling, and becoming a billionaire! Haha, just kidding… I don’t know what we’ll be talking about tomorrow yet, but that actually sounds like fun ;)

Anyways – back to more saving…

I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit and show you how I save through pictures. It’s one thing to talk about things, and a whole other to show what that looks like in practice. So here’s what saving money looks like in different areas of my life:

How I Save… with my car

Meet Frankencaddy. He’s 20 years old, has zero car payments, costs $20/mo to insure, and most importantly – he WORKS. Yes he has some “character” from over the years, but has more than made up for it with those insurance checks he’s promptly brought home to poppa. Not only do we save a ton of money not having car payments each month, but he’s technically an income producer as well ;)

How I save… on my clothes

Meet my favorite jeans in the entire world: three-time patched Mr. Armani Exchange! Which I picked up on sale for $30 down from $100+ ten years ago and still pays dividends to this day… Sure I happen to love the “bum” style, as my mother so eloquently puts it (jeans and hoodies are so comfortable, why all the hate?), but if something makes you happy – screw it. My body, my jeans! (Someone totally needs to use that as their slogan)

How I save… on non-bum clothes

Lest you agree with my mother, I also happen to wear perfectly stiched clothes such as the below too. All brand new (and sometimes “gently used”) shirts/jeans/shoes/and even underwear (always brand new! ALWAYS!!!!) selling at retailers like TJ Maxx and Plato’s Closet for 75%+ off. Above is what my last batch of clothes I bought looked like over the Summer (I “splurge” one or two main times a year and then good for another long block of time).

How I Save… all my spare change

This is how I spend my time on a Saturday night – counting up all my coins and organizing them into cute little baby jars ;) I’m a coin collector at heart, so of course this might turn off 99.9999% of you, but I highly encourage throwing all your spare change in one spot/box/jar, and every few months cashing them in and having some fun with your new found “free” money. If you suck with your money right now, then this “fun” means being applied to your #1 financial goals right now (debt? savings? investments?). But if you’re a rock star and have been diligently managing your money, then this “fun” turns to “treating yourself to something nice” to give yourself a mental break.

How I save… on my lunches

I eat lots of pb&j for lunch. I have no idea if that’s healthy or not, but I grew up eating it and turned out just fine (though “fine” is relative ;)). My old friend Clever Dude used to take 25 mins in one sitting to pump out an entire month’s worth of pb&js for himself when he was slapped at work. Those pics above are from his system, which I found to be all kinds of brilliant. I eat a lot of normal adult adult food too, but regardless it’s all money in the bank when you break the habit of eating out every day. Now those are all treats when done and I appreciate them even more!

How I Save… by organizing paperwork!

I used to suck at organizing stuff. Then one day I started putting all my paperwork into one box and forgetting about it until I needed it again (usually at the end of the year come tax time). Then another day I decided to take a whole 3 seconds extra and put the paperwork in a filling system in that same box so that it would make my job 10x easier at the end of the next year. Then another time after that I accidentally knocked my filing system into my empty desk drawer and thought – WOW! That fits well! I’m going to keep it there from now on and shave off an extra 2 seconds walking over to my box and just start putting things 12 inches to my left every time. And from that point forward I’ve never missed a bill payment or misplaced an important document. It looks kinda ghetto, but again – who cares? At least with drawers you can close them up!

[In full disclosure that’s my neat business drawer there. The one on the right which holds my personal stuff is a bit more, ehm… disheveled. But, still all in one spot and appropriately sorted!]

How I save… while online shopping

Every time I go to check out online, no matter what it is I’m buying (clothes, computer stuff, work stuff, fun stuff, beer), I *always* search for a coupon at the last second. Sometimes it pays off, and other times it doesn’t but it’s a DAMN good habit to get into because I cannot tell you the amount of times it HAS saved us some major casholas. Specifically, when we were once picking up a new fridge for our old house/now rental and literally saved $100 in about 60 seconds. SIXTY SECONDS! For a benjamin! I should go out and make CouponsAreSexy.com, jeesh…

(Side note: I actually did make couponsaresexy.com one day and got hella board with it and shut it down shortly thereafter. Turns out getting money from coupons is a lot more gratifying than blogging about them. Who knew?)

Lastly, How I Save … on entertainment

Instead of blowing money every night and weekend when I want to have a life, I do equally fun stuff such as going for walks, exploring, hanging with my boys, hanging with my boys, going to the park, or even throwing perfectly good pennies into the fountain. Granted, that one does actually cost money, but it’s a nice return on the investment for quality time spent with family. And if you don’t have a kid, you can take your dog instead. (And if you don’t have a dog, you can just go by yourself and enjoy the peace and quiet! ;))

I could go on and on here, but I think you get the point… There are a brazillion* ways you can save money all around your life if you stop and pay attention long enough. No one expects you to eat pb&js every day or patch up your clothes 10,000 times, but you can certainly be more conscious with your money and tweak your own lifestyle accordingly. Everyone knows how to save money, but putting it into practice is a whole other ballgame. You gotta channel your inner Nike and just do it.

In fact, here… print this puppy out and put it in your wallet as a reminder!

Jay loves talking about money, collecting coins, blasting hip-hop, and hanging out with his three beautiful boys. You can check out all of his online projects at jmoney.biz. Thanks for reading the blog!

Last year I started taking my daughter out more to parks and walks instead of spending money on outings just so we can having something to do. We are now getting ready to start taking pictures together which is great. It has brought us even closer because we both love nature and spend just quality time with each other. These days with her are priceless.

Hah–Franken Caddy might actually look worse than Frugalwoods-mobile, who is 19 years-old, sporting a lot of rust, and recently had her muffler fall off (don’t worry, it has since been re-attached).

I think our biggest everyday money saver is eating/preparing all of our meals and drinks at home. Every time I say that, I think people are deflated because they’re hoping I’ll divulge some sort of magical frugal trick, but, food is expensive and if you can get your price per serving below $0.50 (which we do for breakfast and lunch), your life will suddenly have a lot more cash in it :).

What are you making that’s healthy and under $.50 per serving?! My wife and I precook weekly breakfasts and lunches but spend a bit more than $.50 a serving…Must be preferences in what we eat (I don’t eat a meal without a protein, which is a major cost driver).

J. Money is right on the money with oatmeal (bulk, raw, not pre-packaged) for breakfast. And for lunch we often have a dish that Mr. FW cooks in advance of rice, beans, mushrooms, and chili paste, which clocks in at $0.39 per serving. Yummy and healthy! We eat primarily vegetarian, and often vegan, because we’ve found it’s usually cheaper than meat.

I save a decent amount of money by not having a car and just getting around using public transportation. Granted I get away with this because I live in a convenient urban area (which makes prices for other things more expensive) but at least I’m not dealing with traffic.

Wow J great pictures and now I realize why you’re a budgeter and a rockstar. (File drawer and the Jeans) Anyways I save money by not paying interest to credit cards and to car loans. Also by sending it first to the various compounding accounts all over the US.

We put all of our loose change in our piggy bank (pink of course) and a couple of times a year we take the money out, and put it in our savings account. It usually adds up to a couple of hundred each time. I also take all the $1 dollar bills out of my wallet at the end of the week and save them til I get $100 that also goes to the savings account. While not earth shattering, those additions always feel great to have because it involved zero sacrifice to attain.

yeah, i’ve had people tell me they save a lot of $$ on home made beer but I never actually think that’s true by the end of it all, haha… though happy to try it out if you come down here and get me set up ;)

I just saved almost $1000 by combining our rental and primary home insurance. Since our house is on 3 acres, we qualify for farm rates, even though the only livestock we have is one mutt of a dog. I had no idea you could even do that! I think they key is to keep looking even after you think you’ve maxed out how much you can save. Your challenge everything posts are a great reminder for me to do this every month.

I’ve been working on a very similar post! Just so you know I’m not copying :-p I realized I have all these scattered blog posts about the various ways we save, but nothing that sums it all up and is current.

By the way, last month our neighbor backed into my husband’s new(ish) car. First thought that crossed my mind: “FRANKENCADDY!!!” Unfortunately, we do have a loan still (booo!), so we figured we’d best get it repaired. Plus, I don’t think our neighbor would be too thrilled to know his insurance paid out and we were still driving around a bashed car. Man I wish we could have banked the over $2,000 check we got from insurance! I’m grateful the whole ordeal didn’t cost us a penny, though, and now the car has a brand new door.

Awesome is a word that would fit well on this article. I’ve been into being an old school kind of get-up when it comes to clothes, as long as it doesn’t have holes or still street fashion condition I still wear ’em and if not I usually use ’em as house clothes. I also ask some of my friends ( take note: I’m not a “user-friendly” kind of person ) to treat me out if they are asking me out. Anyways, love the blog keep it up so I would get to have more creative ideas in saving up.

Do you freeze your PJB? I’m imagining a lot of mush! I made a double batch of vegan potato curry (it’s on allrecipes.com, super easy) once for our lunches and my husband wasn’t able to hack it for 5 lunches in a row, but I could. I grew up eating my PBJ with “no lid.”. I like ’em open faced, better PB to bread ratio for me!

I just realized I have a 17 year old car! ‘Plain as low fat vanilla’ gold Saturn. 1998 didn’t seem that far back until I did the math. For a while I really wanted a more reliable car (I only hated it 3x out of the year ie. when I wanted to ski, cannot find a friend to drive, and the Subaru was gone), but now I’m perfectly fine keeping this cheap-o-mobile until it dies or the repairs are more than the worth of the car. She’s got some quirks too. The cost has been <$670/year for the last few years (everything: gas, registration, insurance, one oil change, emissions/inspection). Surprisingly no repairs needed in the past 6 years. Oh I did buy rims for the snow tires a couple years ago, which means the tire shop swaps the out for snow/summer tires for free which used to be $50 x2 a year.

Love the pic of PB&J sandwiches. I need to write a post as an ode to the boyhood sandwich at some point here. I’ve eaten A LOT of PB&J in my day (and still do). :)

I actually professed my love for PB&J when I was featured on Today, and people criticized that dietary choice. I imagine they were commenting from their perched stool at their cubicle where they’re imprisoned until they’re in their 60s. Just sayin’.

I love me some PB&J sandwiches too. I might actually have to make a surplus of them now. Over the years of eating them for lunch in middle/high school and at work, I’ve grown fond of them cold versus room temperature. When I make one one the weekend, I have to put it in the fridge for a little bit.

I also sort out all of my coins too. I have a jar for each – dimes, quarters, nickels, and pennies. However I don’t do it because I’m a coin nerd, I do it because I’m an organized nerd. But more importantly, the money does add up. Each year I cash them in and invest the couple hundred bucks they are worth.

I have a simple principle which is to buy solidly built items/clothes/gadgets & run them to the ground. Focus on the ‘big wins’, switch to prepaid phone lines and use the best mode of transportation in the world (your feet/public transport). The rest are ‘smaller wins’ and they’re optional.

I just started saving my change about 3 months ago its surprising how much change I used to throw away and not even save. I used to think that change wasnt money boy was I wrong. I think doing alternative things with your family helps bring a family closer together because you have to be more creative and go outside a little more which is good for kids. Its okay that its not your wallet I wouldnt show people my wallet either.You can’t trust us we could be crazy! Lol just kidding…

Very impressive especially with you being a collector! I tried to be once but I failed to organize it years back. The start ran smoothly, but after sometime I got discouraged because I saw low improvement. Probably, I gotta try again this year.

Love the pics. I save by not owning a car and have been able to squeeze in exercise by walking. It also cut down on spending because I’ve been limited to walking with 2 miles of where I live. Keeps me from wanting to buy anything I’d have to lug back. I just changed my coins for dollars and was pretty happy with the amount saved. Yup, I’m one of those that sees a penny on the floor and I pick it up. No shame whatsoever.

That’s really cool. I’ve found the money-saving lifestyle is like a hemorrhage. I need to keep pressure on it to keep it under control. As long as I’m consistent, the pressure is manageable. However, if I let it go, it gets out of hand fast. It’s easier to just keep that steady pressure. Or go to a doctor, but I guess that breaks the analogy.

Yes – jeans, hoodies and sneakers ’til I die – you are my brother from another mother. I still dress like the 90s rave kid I was and as long as I’m paying myself I will continue to do so. Franken Caddy is pretty awesome, I drive an ugly-ass 1992 Daihatsu Applause. It’s easily the ugliest car ever exported from Japan and the electric windows in the front don’t work so we avoid driving in the heat of the day in summer. Third party only insurance costs $150 per year. Needless to say I ride my bike and walk a lot.

My biggest money savers from last year that I still do are making my own lunch and drinking coffee at home. I used to be a daily Starbucks gal which cost me $104 a month or $1,248 a year. I still get the occasional Starbucks, but now my budget is more like $10 a month. I ate PBJ everyday of my life from 3rd grade to 12th grade so it’s not something I eat all the time as an adult, but I will eat tuna and one can cost less than $1.00 and can make 3-4 lunches for me. I just have to remember the breath mints or my hubby might not be a happy camper. :-)

I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am for your blog. I have no idea how I found it (a few weeks ago) but I’ve spent many nights reading your archives.

I’ve always wanted to get better control of our money, but always thought it would be hard (and I didn’t want to face my debt). Now I have set up a budget on mint.com, made goals with my husband, and used a lot of your suggestions to save money.

I had no idea that this would become a hobby I enjoy immensely! I’m finding lots of ways to save. I just saved $120 off our car insurance because we dropped collision on hubby’s 15 year old car! We also dropped emergency towing (we have AAA) and saved another $15. I even started looking for coins wherever I go and started a jar to keep found change.

We’re a lot older than you and Mrs. Money (we’re mid 40’s with 2 teens!) but your advice works for any age group. You’ve made me realize it’s never too late and I thank you!

Well damn – that’s cool!! Way to go w/ the new hobby ( a great one, I must say ;)) and thanks so much for taking the time to tell me! Makes me happy knowing you’re reading these articles and they’re helping – rock on!

Man I love when you write about Frankencaddy…reminds me of my first vehicle that I picked up for $50 from a cousin, a blue Buick. Sure it died after that summer, but it got me through my first summer of having an “official J.O.B.”

Hi, I found your blog very inspiring and have embarked on a journey to retire early by saving like crazy and investing it in income-producing assets. I primarily do it by practicing extremely frugal habits, spending way less than I make every month, sharing a flat with my colleagues, and staying away from impulse buying.

I can say it with conviction that a frugal lifestyle and a stringent control over monthly expenses can save people tonnes of money, which they can then take out from their account and invest in real assets to secure dividends, interests, royalty payments or anything you can name.

This is a very plain and simple truth but not many people practice it, and I just wonder WHY.

I’m glad Mahmudul! Thanks for stopping by and sharing your journey with us :) I don’t know how old you are, but I can tell you I wish I paid attention to this stuff a lot earlier than when I was 25. At least it finally sunk in!

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I, J. Money, only claim the thoughts from my head. I am not a banker, CPA, money manager or anything else of that sort. Please seek a professional for any "real" advice. More info: privacy & disclosure page